The Big Circle

The Big Circle as a Contact Field

I would like to tell you about how a group of people on both sides of the veil joined together to build a contact field. My thought is that, since we in the ASSMPI are building one just by turning our attention to the organization, it might be helpful to integrate the field into our practice.

Contact Field: Rapport can be considered a conceptual form of energy and the rapport of mutual cooperation builds what might be thought of as a contact field which is seen as necessary for etheric to physical influences. A contact field can also be thought of as a type of thoughtform which becomes entangled with a group of people or a place. Such a thoughtform may support similar trans-etheric influences which otherwise require the entanglement of a personality-avatar relationship. In general, contact fields are associated with cooperative communities or places of long-time human occupancy or the expression of strong emotions. For instance, unusually frequent trans-etheric influences (haunting) are often reported at churches, hospitals and battlefields.

How it Began

For my wife Lisa and me, it began with a comment from Martha Copeland we included in “The Taper’s Report” column of the Summer 2002 AA-EVP* Newsletter.

Martha Copeland sent us a wonderful confirmation of survival. She wrote, “My daughter was killed in a fatal car accident on December 23, 2001. We have been getting her voice on the computer. We have heard her voice saying “I’m still here.”

Not long after, members Karen Mossey and Martha reported that their children had apparently gotten together on the other side. We reported that in the Spring 2003 newsletter as: “Children Together on the Other Side” (http://atransc.org/circle/children_together.htm).

Other AA-EVP members began communicating with Martha and Karen about contacts they received from their loved ones. Soon, many members were recording together for Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) every week at the same time of day and week for where they lived. After analyzing their recordings, they posted them on the Idea Exchange discussion board and helped one another understand what was said. Over time, there were some pretty impressive demonstrations that something special was happening.

Martha and Karen remained the anchor by keeping the group focused. All of the active Thursday recorders wanted to name their group, and via an EVP, Cathy suggested “Big Circle.” They ended up with “Recording Circle, Bridge to the Afterlife.”

We were very impressed by the Big Circle as well and even published a book for Martha about how Cathy communicated in so many ways across the veil. You can learn more about it on Martha’s website: http://evpcommunications.com.

An Example of Cross-veil Cooperation

The Big Circle produced quite a lot of pretty astounding examples of survival. Vicki’s story is one of the better documented examples.

In March 2001, Vicki Talbot lost her son, Braden, along with his best friend, Jim, in a kayaking accident. Braden began communicating with her through the answering machine about five months after he died. Both Vicki and Jim’s mother, Mary Jo Gran, joined the group in February, many months after AA-EVP members had started the Big Circle.

January 19, only two weeks before Vicki joined the Association, Martha Copeland recorded the name “Brad” and wrote to the group saying “My nephew is Brad—but this is not intended for him. Someone in spirit is trying to get a hold of Brad. Does anyone know who Brad could be?”

January 23, Mike Sullivan wrote back to the group saying, “On your ‘Hey Brad’ clip, I heard it as ‘It’s Brad.’ Maybe he’s someone on the other side who’s trying to reach someone unknown to our group. I mean, he may have joined the group on the other side in the hope of reaching someone special to him but not associated with the group. It would be interesting if he continued to come through and could provide more details.”

January 26, one week before Vicki joined, Martha wrote, “I picture Brad as a young man (late teens) who has heard about our group sessions, and I feel you are right about him wanting to reach out to a loved one here in the physical world.”

After Vicki joined and the group learned her son’s name was Braden, Mike Sullivan went back and listened to the clip with the name Brad on it. He wrote, “I went back and listened to the clip again and the name could very well be ‘Braden.’”

Before joining the AA-EVP, Vicki had the opportunity to speak with two outstanding mediums. Both told her that her son was saying, “Cathy.” Vicki wrote, “I don’t think he knew a Cathy when alive and when I told the mediums, they both just said that he was very clearly saying, ‘Cathy,’ and that he was confident I would figure it out. (I hate it when they say that!) When I found out the role Martha’s daughter, Cathy is playing in the connection between those of us here and those of us there, it made sense. He seems very interested in keeping up contact, had probably already met Cathy and friends and was probably hoping I’d end up here!”

Call on the Big Circle

Members of the Big Circle community have moved on, but it is our belief that the contact field is still strong. Even today, we occasionally hear a reference to Cathy and help from the other side. The Big Circle has always been greater than just the association that hosted it. Loved ones on the other side have repeatedly told us to call on them for help.

An example of how they try to help can be heard in a recording Martha Copeland made while praying for help for her grandfather’s operation. In it, you can hear her daughter, Cathy, saying “Big Circle,” as if to tell her that the Big Circle would help. The recording and a video about the Big Circle are at atransc.org/circle/about_the_big_circle.htm.

ASSMPI Contact Field

A thoughtform is an etheric field. You might think of it as a set of elements which are similar in some way. The point of similarity can be thought of as an attractor. Remember all of this is in conceptual space, so try not to hold on too tight to physical concepts.

The elements of similar characteristics gravitate to the attractor, more or less, depending on how exact their character matches the attractor. To visualize this, think of a bull’s-eye target. The center is the attractor, say, the color blue. The concentric circles, say ten of them, represent percentage of agreement with the attractor at the center. Scattered around the target are blue marbles—those are the elements in our set. Each marble is a slightly different color of blue. This is imaginary space, so you can imagine the marbles automatically arranging themselves amongst the concentric circles, depending on their shade of blue.

In a similar way, the blue marbles would gravitate toward other attractors such as size and purpose. In this way, all elements are associated in thoughtform sets–many different sets. Which set or thoughtform you access would depend on intention expressed as visualization. Again, remember this is conceptual space. The elements can be marbles, wagons, likes, anything kind of information.

In our example, when you turn your attention to the color blue, you become more or less aware of all of the elements in the set—the attractor in the thoughtform you access, depending on your idea of blue. Some elements agree with your idea of blue (your worldview) and you are more aware of them. Some almost agree with your worldview and you might learn to appreciate them as well … maybe not. Others will not agree with your worldview at all and you will probably ignore them.

I refer to this mental filtering of seeing one and ignoring another, Perceptual Agreement. It limits your experiences in everything … here and hereafter. You can control that through mindfulness.

A contact field is a thoughtform, but it is special. As far as we can tell, a loved one cannot directly influence the physical. All such influence must be through an avatar relationship. That means in EVP, for instance, the message is initiated by the communicating personality, but it is enabled by the personality-avatar channel of the practitioner or an interested observer. Much the same can be said for mental mediumship.

The avatar entanglement is essential, but it may be possible that a contact field can also act as a conduit. We just do not have enough information to know for sure. One thing we do know is that contact fields facilitate transcommunication. We think the Big Circle was possible because of the field the grieving mothers formed through their mutual rapport.

The Society for Research in Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT) is an example of a group that deliberately set out to build a contact field. We talk a little about it at atransc.org/examples/examples_other_techniques.htm. As with most groups, they appear to have had at least one “anchor medium,” but the phenomena clearly increased and decreased as efforts were made to increase rapport.

My first essay to you was about Community. Almost everything I have written here has been directed at this one message:

The Way of Progression

Through community comes knowledge

Through teaching comes understanding

It takes a collective

When you comment about an article here, when you comment on the FaceBook page and when you think about the ASSMPI, you add to the field. If in your mind, you associate the organization with transcommunication, then when you turn your attention to communion with the other side, you add to the field. At the same time, you access the field to facilitate your communion. That is the theory.

Put another way, think of someone and you build an etheric thread of influence connecting you and that someone. Think of that someone again and that thread becomes more influential. As each of us turn our attention to one another and the organization, we build a vast network of interconnecting influence. This is the field or thoughtform called ASSMPI in one sense, but it is also the contact field if your intention is to relate the ASSMPI with transcommunication. The ASSMPI becomes the attractor.

Attention builds the field, but it is intention that characterizes it as beneficial to your progression. Positive, affirmative thought (visualizations, really) builds a strong field. It must be your intention to do so. Importantly, you can let the other person do the work, but doing so dissipates your intention. Each of us must do the work.

*The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) was founded in 1982 by Sarah Estep. My wife Lisa and I assumed leadership in 2000. In 2010, we changed the name to Association TransCommunication (ATransC).

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Tom Butler

Tom Butler is an ordained National Spiritualist Teacher, Certified Medium and Commissioned Healer with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. He has studied many things paranormal since his teens, and in 2000, with his wife Lisa, assumed leadership of the Association TransCommunication. He has conducted a number of formal studies intended to establish the objectivity of Instrumental TransCommunication, and with his wife, authored the introductory book for ITC: "There Is No Death and There Are No Dead." With a Bachelors of Science degree in Electronics Engineering, Tom has served as a strategic planner, design and project engineer in the communications industry. He has personally authored "Handbook of Metaphysics," "One Who Cares" (a novel) and "Two Worlds, One Heart" (a novel). His current work concerns identifying objective support for the Survival Hypothesis, from which he has developed the Implicit Cosmology. See supporting essays at ethericstudies.org/concepts.htm You can learn more about Tom’s work at atransc.org and at his personal site: ethericstudies.org. Also, he is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tom_Butler and en.citizendium.org/wiki/User:Thomas_Butler